CASE STUDY

Accenture worked with American Express to launch a prepaid debit account solution and extended their brand to a broad new group of members.

Opportunity

In the fiercely competitive credit card market, American Express had already staked out its turf: affluent customers interested in high-end cards. American Express’s longstanding success with this segment made its next move a bold surprise—a pivot toward customers seeking alternative financial services.

To pull off this dramatic departure, American Express sought to launch its newest product and quickly ramp up a good-sized customer base to create a stir in the marketplace. With Accenture’s help, American Express developed a new mobile platform with a digital alternative to banking, enabled to scale with rapid development.

American Express Serve—a digital prepaid reloadable platform—debuted with money management tools to support various transactions including direct deposit, mobile check deposit, and a “Reserve" account for savings.

With Serve, American Express gave consumers an alternative to banking in the palm of their hands.

Key Serve Features

American Express Customer Service

Access the American Express® Standard of Service. A live person is available 24/7.

Transactions

Check your balance and recent transactions, pay bills on the go, add checks, and send money to family or friends who have a Serve Account1.

Fraud Protection

Card lost or stolen? You’re protected against fraudulent purchases.

Client Profile

American Express is a global services company, providing customers with access to products, insights, and experiences that enrich lives and build business success. They help their customers realize their dreams and aspirations through industry-leading benefits, access to unique experiences, business-building insights, and global customer care. They enable their customers to do more and achieve more.

American Express Serve is a family of prepaid debit Accounts with features like cash reloads, cash back, and a low monthly fee making it easy for customers to choose the Account that's right for them.

Solution

Serve prepaid Account holders can load and reload funds onto the prepaid platform using a variety of methods, including their smartphones. From there, they can process payments, make purchases, add checks, and even set money aside in a Reserve account—all from one platform.

Accenture helped American Express tap this new market by helping create the digital platform that could bring the vision to life. Included was a mix of projects, such as a variety of new money management products and services,
and a new mobile app. A common platform supports Send and Receive, a feature that allows peer to peer sending between Serve Accounts.

Results

Customers have flocked to the Serve prepaid digital platform, to the tune of more than $7 billion loaded onto the platform. That’s a 300 percent increase in only two years. At the time of launch, the platform was new as was its customer base: 90% of Serve
users are either new to American Express or are former card members.

The digital prepaid reloadable platform didn't just build a market for American Express, it created new opportunities for the customers in this target market.

In addition to a variety of features across the platform, Serve offers the only prepaid debit Account with unlimited 1% Cash Back on purchases2 with Serve Cash Back.

Serve users are either new to American Express or are former card members

The American Express Serve® family of reloadable prepaid Accounts are available to U.S. residents who are over 18 years old only (or 19 in certain states) and for use virtually anywhere American Express® Cards are accepted worldwide, subject to verification. Fees apply. Other eligibility and restrictions apply. For complete details please visit serve.com/legal to view the applicable Consumer User Agreement for each Serve reloadable prepaid Account.

American Express Serve Service and Card are provided and issued by American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc., 200 Vesey Street, New York, N.Y. 10285. American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. is licensed
to engage in the transmission of money on behalf of the public. Click here for information about addressing complaints regarding our money services business, lists of our money services business licenses and other disclosures.

1 Data rates may apply

2 Earn 1% Cash Back on purchases (less returns/credits) rounded to the nearest dollar, added to your Account after you use your Card. Rounding purchases to the nearest dollar means that you won’t earn a fraction of a penny in Cash Back. For example, a purchase of $0.01-$0.49 rounds to $0.00 (you don’t earn Cash Back), a purchase of $0.50-$0.99 rounds to $1.00 (you earn $0.01 Cash Back), and so on. Account spend limits apply. The Serve Cash Back Card is the only prepaid Card/Account with 1% Cash Back on purchases, not limited to select merchants or select purchases. Cash Back is typically applied to your Account promptly after your purchase, but could take up to 60
days. Cash Back can be redeemed and used only for future purchases made with your Card and cannot be redeemed for cash or otherwise exchanged for value. Subaccounts are not eligible to earn Cash Back. ATM transactions, fees
and Serve Online Bill Pay are not purchases and do not earn Cash Back. For full terms and restrictions, see the Cash Back User Agreement.

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